International tax

The AICPA launched 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy for Women, an expansion of its pro bono efforts to improve the public’s understanding of personal finance. The program’s Web site ( www.360financialliteracy ) contains more than 600 articles and planning tools women can use to focus on various aspects of their

The AICPA launched the Accounting Education Center ( www.aicpa.org/aec ), a Web site that provides educators with resources to enhance accounting and business curricula and to recruit and prepare students for entering the profession. The AICPA Core Competency Framework and Educational Competency Assessment Web site are among those offerings. The

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) approved guidelines for insurers and pension funds to strengthen public confidence in the insurance industry and protect pensions from mismanagement and fraud ( www.oecd.org/dataoecd/19/10/34799740.pdf ; www.oecd.org/dataoecd/ ). Both sets of guidelines draw from the corporate governance principles the OECD created in 1999

The AICPA Personal Financial Planning (PFP) Executive Committee has been tracking the SEC’s activities relating to its final rule, “Certain Broker-Dealers Deemed Not to Be Financial Advisers” ( www.sec.gov/rules/final/34-51523.pdf ), which exempts certain fee-based broker-dealers from the provisions of the Investment Advisors Act of 1940. The SEC is conducting a

Federal banking regulators issued supplemental guidance to financial institutions on how they should account for and report on commitments to originate and sell mortgage loans ( www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/bulletin/ ). The institutions are required to determine which of these commitments are derivatives under FASB rules and then calculate and report their fair

The SEC launched a program that enables registered securities issuers to voluntarily furnish XBRL-formatted data as part of filings they are required to make through the SEC’s electronic data-gathering, analysis and retrieval (EDGAR) system. The commission established the program to help itself and issuers determine the extent to which XBRL

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) member Daniel L. Goelzer said in a recent speech that Sarbanes-Oxley Act section 404 compliance costs will fall and benefits rise, especially if certain principles become better understood in the marketplace ( www.pcaobus.org/news_and_events/events/2005/speech_text/04-29.asp ). He emphasized that internal control audits require professional judgment and

The IRS is holding CPE-eligible tax forums to keep tax professionals up to date on its policies and programs ( www.taxforuminfo.com ). Topics to be addressed include like-kind exchanges, estate and trust planning, identity theft, small-business retirement plans, alternative minimum tax and recent tax law changes. Forums will take place

The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) released an exposure draft of proposed International Education Standard (IES), Competence Requirements for Audit Professionals ( www.ifac.org/eds ), to ensure auditors have the knowledge, skills, values, ethics and attitudes to perform competently. The proposed IES will apply not just to audit engagement partners but